The future of freedom

So I guess Dirty Bird and Ron's Diner have become legitimate targets for radical Islamic anger against the Mohamed cartoons.



Even the young 'uns are in on it:




Now after all the mess of the past two weeks, a lone Aussie backbench MP named Danna Vale suggeseted that Islamic radicalism is going to have quite a built-in market for itself over the next few years given demographic patterns in Oz and the West more broadly. Specifically, she observed that with the introduction of the RU-486 abortion pill, native-born Aussies are potentially going to "abort themselves out of existence". Naturally, this led to much hue and cry (one can only imagine the reaction in Canada if Cheryl Gallant were to say the same thing).

While I am not in favour of criminalizing abortion, I think it's an unfortunate and ugly procedure, and if you read this piece, it's clear that over time, the side effects may not be limited to just increased incidence of depression and breast cancer.

Given the fact that today's Ottawa Citizen is reporting that our so-called Conservative government thinks the immigration system needs only minor tinkering, and also, that the local imam engages in the usual citations of far-left icons like Noam Chomsky and the required bashing of Israel while ostensibly commenting on the prospects for the co-existence of Islam and democracy (see below), it's obvious that the Aussie MP's argument is at least worth thinking about.

The Koran is full of tolerance for non-Muslims
Gamal Solaiman, The Ottawa Citizen

Re: What Hamas teaches about democracy and Islam, Feb. 11.

David Warren buttresses his answer to "Can Islam and democracy co-exist?" with references to the works of Efraim Karsh and Bernard Lewis, but he does not refer to Rogue State and Rogue States by William Blum and Noam Chomsky, respectively, who claim the world's superpower has diminished democracy and peace.

Mr. Warren quotes Prophet Muhammad: "I was ordered to fight all men until they say 'There is no god but God','' from one of the eight collections of Hadith (gospels) meant only for Mecca's tribes, which had repeatedly broken treaties with Muslims. The Koran (scriptures) is replete with tolerance towards non-Muslims, especially Jews and Christians. Koran 2:256 states: "There is no compulsion in religion ...", and 109:7 "Unto your religion, and unto me, my religion." Mr. Warren asserts that war spearheads religion, but Islam was accepted freely by Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia.

He contends U.S. President George Bush is committed to promoting democracy as an antidote to terrorism. Is the world safer today? Some 2,300 U.S. soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis are dead. Iraq has become a training camp for insurgents, exporting terror worldwide, and 60,000 Christians who had lived with Muslims for 14 centuries have fled to Syria. Democracy's dividends?

Mr. Warren is concerned about Hamas's victory in the Palestine elections. Even Jimmy Carter declared it fair. If the elections were nullified, as Algeria's were by the West in 1991 when the Islamic Salvation Front was winning, the ensuing civil war toll could be thousands of deaths, as in Algeria. Whither democracy?

I admire Judy Rebick, a Canadian Jew, who wrote in Maclean's (July 29, 2002) about Israelis' treatment of Palestinians: "I couldn't accept that my people, who suffered for so many centuries, could turn around and persecute another people. There is no justice in that... " I do not condone Hamas, but share her view: violence begets violence.

Mr. Warren muses that Muslim states may use their oil revenues to fuel Palestine's economy if the West curtails its largesse. No one tells Canada what to do with our revenues; however, Muslim countries' non-renewable resource does stoke our western economic engines.

Mr. Warren talks of civilization. In 1258 Hulagu Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson, sacked Baghdad's library. In 1403 another Mongol, Tamerlame, occupied Turkey and dragged King Bayazzid who was tied to a dog's leash. In 2003, these acts were repeated under U.S. occupation of Iraq, a 7,000-year-old civilization.

For civilization, credit Napoleon. When he invaded my native Egypt in 1798, he declared: 4,500 years of history is looking down upon his army. Mr. Warren says Egypt has had half an election. Half an election in bourgeois Egypt may be better than a full-fledged one in Palestine, isn't it, Mr. Warren?

Gamal Solaiman,

Ottawa,

Imam, Ottawa Mosque